Reader Responses

Thank you for your editorial (Sunday, June 1), "Lieberman Bill Would Hit Taxpayers Hard." I hope this will not be the last editorial concerning this subject. It is very important and should be hit hard and fast.

I have never seen so many ignoramuses in the world who have been led astray by those who believe, or say they believe, burning of fossil fuels and their production of carbon dioxide is causing global warming. It seems at least 19,000 scientists do not think so.

Carbon dioxide makes a poor choice for a greenhouse gas. I have seen greenhouses in West Texas two or three stories high. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and like water tends to seek the lowest level. It would seem to be a bad choice if you want something to hover over you and keep the heat in. Even if the winds push it up, it would tend to come back to earth. Some carbon dioxide will dissolve in water, including the oceans; it is therefore, not suitable to be a greenhouse gas and cause global warming.

Less than 1 percent of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, and burning of fossil fuels should account for only a small fraction of that. Nature produces carbon dioxide constantly from decay pf plants and animals. Just about all cells in plants and animals have carbon in them, and decomposition releases the carbon in the form of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Constant natural decomposition of dead plants and animals in the world produces carbon dioxide in such quantity as to make carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels insignificant by comparison and therefore not a problem related to global warming.

If we are to believe in the carbon dioxide cycle and photosynthesis, it is obvious the carbon in fossil fuels had to come out of the atmosphere "captured" by plants which were eaten by animals and animals that ate these animals. Burning of fossil fuels, therefore, is only returning to the atmosphere carbon dioxide that existed there in the first place.

Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner should be ashamed of themselves for trying to pass a bill based on a hoax, and so should the candidates running for president.

Marvin M. Troublefield, Jr.
Rusk